YS GOLD 

Countless people still recall the days when we would daven for Sholom Mordechai Halevi ben Rivka to be released from prison. On Sunday, Mrs. Rivka Rubashkin left this world following a lifetime of chessed in the Boro Park community. She was in her late nineties. 

Mrs. Rubashkin was the devoted wife of Reb Avraham Aharon Rubashkin, of blessed memory, a pioneering force in the kosher meat industry, noted philanthropist, and respected head of a large Lubavitch family. Reb Avraham Aharon passed away in 2020. Together, the couple established a home deeply grounded in Torah values, Chassidic life, and exceptional generosity that became known far and wide.

Born Rivka Chazanov, a member of the distinguished Chein family from Nevel, she escaped the German invasion of her hometown in July 1941. Later, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, she married Reb Avraham Aharon Rubashkin.

Following the war, the family succeeded in leaving the Soviet Union. Their journey took them through Lemberg and Austria before they ultimately settled in Paris in 1947.

Several years later, in 1953, the Rubashkins immigrated to New York. There, Reb Avraham Aharon joined with Reb Alter Lieberman to establish Lieberman & Rubashkin Glatt Kosher Butchers on 14th Avenue in Brooklyn's Boro Park neighborhood. The enterprise would eventually become widely known simply as Rubashkin’s.

Boro Park became the family's permanent home. While her husband expanded business ventures that would leave a lasting mark on the American kosher food industry, Mrs. Rubashkin focused on creating an atmosphere of warmth, kindness, and hospitality that welcomed all who entered.

She earned a reputation among neighbors, guests, yeshiva students, and families facing hardship as someone whose door was always open. Countless visitors found encouragement, assistance, and genuine care in her home. Many of her charitable acts remained known only to those she quietly helped.

Mrs. Rubashkin was also a familiar presence at Crown’s Deli on 13th Avenue, which she managed beginning in the early 1960s. Though technically a family-run restaurant, many remembered it less as a business and more as a center for helping others. Anyone in need of a meal could receive one, regardless of their ability to pay. Despite operating for decades before closing in the late 2000s, the establishment never generated a profit.

Her commitment to helping others reached far beyond her immediate circle. Alongside her husband, she supported numerous Jewish institutions and communal initiatives. The couple also provided discreet assistance to immigrants starting new lives, yeshiva students, widows, struggling families, and many others facing difficult circumstances. Frequently, beneficiaries never learned who was responsible for the aid they received.

People from every background and stage of life knew that the Rubashkin home was a place where they could find a warm meal, a place to stay, a listening ear, and the comforting feeling of being welcomed as family.

She raised incredible children in the ways of Torah, Yiras Shomayim, avodas Hashem and chassidus, and as noted, her Boro Park home was open to one and all. 

The levaya will take place today, Monday, passing by her home at 12:15 PM at 5500 15th Avenue in Boro Park, by 770 Eastern Parkway at 2:15 PM, and near the Ohel of the Lubavitcher Rebbe at 3:30 PM.